


Sonder

by asterisque



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Help, Light Angst, M/M, daniel is drunk, hongdae??? kinda, idk im drunk too, seongwoo is a busker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 13:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14497791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asterisque/pseuds/asterisque
Summary: Hongdae is where it all began, ended, and started again.





	Sonder

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic so please don't be too harsh u_u

The Monday’s eve of Seoul is relatively young and vibrant in contrast to the fleeting silence that blanketed the tiny apartment tucked in a small corner in Mapo-gu, near the hustle and bustle of the city’s lifestyle district.

Daniel could hear the racketry, audible and clear enough outside his apartment window, facing the long stretch of road that served as the district’s main artery. He could feel the jive and liveliness oozing around him but deep inside his heart, something is awfully missing.

Daniel doesn’t remember a thing – or chooses not to.

Hongdae, as far as he could remember, was the city’s ultimate hip place for young people like him. The unending rows of bars that graced its asphalt roads, the wondrous art that filled the nooks and crannies of its lively spaces therefore giving soul and character to the district Daniel had dreamt of thriving.

But there was one thing that Daniel loved more than its bright lights and unlimited alcohol Hongdae could offer: it was the busking scene that made the younger fall even more, aimlessly wandering in the brick-laden pathways, the resonating sounds of unique voices hushing rough and soft staccatos in his ears, filling up the empty void that seemed to have grown inside of him ever since he left the nest that is Busan, along with his mother and friends.

Daniel wanted the best for his mother, shelving his dreams of becoming an idol, and working his ass off seven days a week while maintaining a high grade mark in order to enter a prestigious university in the capital.

His mother wanted the same, though, she wanted her son to be happy in any path he chose regardless of any sacrifices made. However, Daniel isn’t keen to selfishness and adamantly pushed through with the idea of leaving Busan for Seoul, so does the dream he had kept inside him for so long.

And so, here he is, one year away from graduating software engineering – a choice he had never really thought of at first but eventually found his way in the later years. The emptiness inside him is still present – it isn’t growing but it’s there – but the sounds and voices from the indie scene that flooded Hongdae’s streets were there to comfort him.

They sing old songs, the ones that his mother used to hum while washing the dishes or whenever they would listen to the radio on a hot Sunday’s afternoon, those were the songs he held so dear in his heart. The songs sung were mostly in Korean but some, in English for the foreign spectators, and it depended on the buskers themselves if they had the mood to sing happy ones or sad ones.

This is what made Daniel fall in love with Hongdae.

And the same reason why resented the same place.

 

☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆

 

The first time Daniel finds himself sauntering in the streets of Hongdae was on a cold Friday of February, the harsh bite of the frozen wind digging through the male’s rosy cheeks.

He nurses a can of beer in his hand, surreptitiously taking sips by the minute, mainly to keep himself warm against the bitter cold and, maybe, to forget the small problems bugging him constantly in the university.

Daniel wanders more, in its effervescent glow and constant cacophony of footsteps produced by the people roaming around the same street, he is lost in a daze.

In that particular moment, he realizes Seoul is rather merciless in comparison to what he had thought of it to be. The people is as cold as the winter gets and life in the city is as hopeless as the autumn wind pulling the last set of stubborn leaves on a dying tree.

But there and then, he hears a sweet sounding voice, pitch high and stable as it effortlessly hit the notes of Bobbalgan4’s ‘Galaxy’, something his mother used to hum when it became an earworm hit years ago.

 

_Cause I’m a pilot anywhere_

_Cause I’m your pilot, by your side_

_I’ll pluck those stars_

_And give them to you, my galaxy_

 

Daniel feels light-headed. He’s positively sure that the cause isn’t the beer he’d been gulping for the past thirty minutes, rather, the man singing in the background, as he takes in more alcohol in his system, is root cause of the sudden spillage of unkempt emotions.

The notes, beautifully sung, takes him nearer to the ruckus that has been brewing in the middle of the street, near a dying bush in front of a famous cosmetics store. He navigates carefully in the messy crowd, snaking himself a front row view despite his obviously broad stature.

He takes a closer look.

Daniel sees a man performing, with his guitar and small speaker in the middle of Hongdae, singing passionately with eyes that seem to twinkle whenever he strikes a chord in his worn-out guitar.

The younger male also notices the passion and bliss in the way he belts out the notes which complemented the busker’s inarguably handsome face. He was indeed a beaut, and the songs he sang had struck one of Daniel’s own chords too.

The moment Daniel had gone back to his rightful senses, he’s already in tears and the void in his heart evolves into a slight pang of want.

Daniel craved the stranger’s voice.

His heart says so.

 

☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆

 

The second time Daniel finds himself wandering around Hongdae’s puzzling alleyways was on a quiet yet freezing Sunday night in the middle of March. Dead drunk from all the alcohol he had consumed prior, he walks aimlessly, casually bumping strangers here and there with his inebriated antics.

The man’s vision is hazy, all he could see was the bokeh of bright lights intermittently blinding his vision and the whirring noise of the folks who were in the same place slightly annoying the youngster.

Daniel’s clouded senses immediately clears up when he hears the same sweet voice that he had constantly been craving of. This time, the busker had sang one of Daniel’s favourite songs, Heize’s ‘Star’ to be precise, one of his go-to songs whenever he would feel the blues, the longing of someone he had wanted but he’s well-aware he can’t ever muster the courage of reaching out.

Just like the person singing in front of him.

 

_Is that star looking at me too?_

_Won’t it be looking at me?_

_Is that star looking at me too? At me?_

_Isn’t it looking for me right now?_

_Or is it avoiding me? At me?_

 

The stranger’s eyes remains fixed at the sight of a drunk Daniel, all cooped up in one corner, giggling to himself beet red. The busker thinks the man in front of him looks absolutely adorable, so he sings even more, belting out notes and enunciating every lyric with much emotion.

“Bravo! Bravo!” The younger male shouts like a kid and claps in the most childish way ever.

The busker lets out a small chuckle.

Daniel, when intoxicated, can be very different from his normal, reserved side. His childlike cheeky side shows whenever he quaffs a few bottle of _soju_ more than the tolerated amount. He likes to think he has the strongest liver out of the few close colleagues he has (Minhyun, drinking one shot glass of _soju_ , would be enough to send him into oblivion), however that theory proves unusually wrong when he’s out here, in front of the said busker, acting completely shameless despite the few spectators he had garnered at around midnight.

_Hiccup._

 

☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆

 

After the final song, still Heize’s song ‘You, Clouds and Rain’, the crowd disperses slowly and the handsome busker is left with a giggling mess of a fan sitting in a nearby bench. He tends to his guitar, carefully placing it in its bag that has seen better days and proceeds to tend to the speaker, wrapping it around his pale lithe arms.

“You’re not going to sing anymooooore?” Drunk-Daniel asks, tone sounding like an annoyed child who wanted more treats, elongating the ‘o’ in anymore because he just feels like it.

God forbid him and his drunk antics.

Instead of feigning annoyance, the busker erupts into a hearty laugh, eyes forming into beautiful crescents and his teeth, his cute crooked teeth that makes Drunk-Daniel giggle more because it looks lovely when it shows.

“You, Mister, are drunk. It’s already past midnight, I gotta rest too y’know?” He chides, still tending to his equipment, but the smile plastered in his face tells he’s not particularly vexed.

The stranger sits beside Daniel and it seems that the intoxication has worn off for a couple of minutes because all he could feel was his heart beating rapidly, growing louder by the second, and his temples are sweating like waterfalls (he wonders if it had been the peach _soju_ ). He feels like a kid meeting his crush up close for the first time, mind going haywire whenever the latter would speak.

Well, he isn’t wrong at that notion, Drunk-Daniel is indeed a kid. And a mess.

“Do you have a name, drunk guy?” The beautiful busker speaks again in a teasing tone, head tilting in Daniel’s direction.

“K-ka-ng... Daniel,” he stutters, the childish persona wearing off at the sudden beating of his heart.

“I’m Seongwoo. Ong Seongwoo. Nice to meet you, Daniel,” Seongwoo pats the man’s mousy brown hair, painting his face completely red (definitely not from the alcohol) and making his hands (and heart) all jittery.

 Daniel swears the creatures in his stomach aren’t butterflies, because whatever the hell it is, it makes him feel so sick.

_Crap_ , he thinks he’s going to puke.

 

☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆

 

The young man doesn’t remember what happened further that night and he doesn’t want to remember either. All he could recall was that the busker, Seongwoo, approached him (oh god, he was so drunk that time) and–

_Oh shit._

Daniel puked on him.

The younger man wakes up screeching at the sudden recollection, the sunlight filtering through the gray curtains, hitting his eyes directly. He squints, and scans the nearby surroundings. Daniel’s positively sure that this isn’t his apartment; the place is completely ragged and the furniture are up to a bare minimum.

He looks to his left and sees a couple of polaroids pasted around the pale, run-down wall – one picture showed a house near the sea, another were faces of people he had never met before but there was one picture that stood out the most for him, a picture of familiar man singing in a choir.

It was the lovely busker.

In that moment, reality hits him like a truck. _No_ , it hit him like a damn bullet train. He was sure that this wasn’t his apartment because he doesn’t even remember going home at all. And, he’s positively sure that this wasn’t his apartment because he totally doesn’t have a _fucking_ polaroid of his favourite busker.  

He was in Seongwoo’s apartment, half naked and completely blank of yesterday’s disaster. Daniel mentally panics and his fingers fumble around the thick duvet until he feels something move from his side. He freezes.

He looks to his right to check the source of the sudden movement only to be greeted by the face of a beautiful man, soft willowy lips tightly pursed in peaceful slumber. Seongwoo is truly a wonderful sight, Daniel muses.

As he slowly begins to arise and climb out of the bed, the older man is jolted awake by the creaking sounds created by the mattress. Daniel mentally curses at himself.

“Oh, good morning?” Seongwoo slowly wakes up, one eye barely open. “Are you feeling alright, now?” He yawns.

“W-wh-at… happened?” Daniel stutters at the man in front of him, sporting a light tinge of baby pink in his soft cheeks.

Seongwoo chuckles lightly, hands extending towards the younger’s forehead. Daniel is suddenly taken aback at the sudden contact and rolls out of the mattress, he prepares for the fall when the older man grabs his wrist and yanks him back to the bed, saving him (again) from further trouble.

“Geez, stop being so jumpy. You’re going to hurt yourself,” he snorts, placing the man back at his side of the bed.

“Why wouldn’t I be jumpy when I just crashed at a random guy’s place dead drunk and the next day I realized, I slept with him?!” Daniel argues. Well, not really, but he does intend to assert something.

“Excuse me, I’m not just _any_ random guy,” Seongwoo stands up and picks up a crumpled wrapper placed at the bedside table. He grabs one patch and slowly peels off the protective film that covers its adhesive. “And excuse me again, you had a nasty fever so I ended up nursing you the whole night geez.” He slaps the fever patch on the younger’s forehead tightly.

Aside from the warmth emanating from his forehead, Daniel could feel the warmth coming from Seongwoo’s hand as he carefully cups both of the young man’s cheeks. “You seem to be fine now,” he tilts his head, scanning Daniel’s face and the older could see the blush forming again from his soft baby cheeks. Seongwoo thinks it’s the cutest thing in the world.

The younger man feels a vibration coming from one of his pockets, he slowly fishes out his phone only to see that it’s already 8 in the morning, on a Monday. Wait, did he really read that right? He rubs his eyes vigorously hoping to get the drowsiness out of his system. Yet, the date and time doesn’t change.

**_Monday. 8 am._ **

Heck, Daniel's class starts in fifteen minutes.

Daniel jumps out of the bed, this time it’s for real, hands fastidiously scavenging for his missing shirt. He’s going to be in big trouble if he’s running late for programming class, it’s the third strike already and one more tardiness will surely lead to failing marks.

Besides, what kind of valid reason is he going to tell the professor? Him being dead drunk and somehow a busker, ~~a beautiful one by the way~~ , takes him in and then discovers he has a fev—

“If you’re looking for your shirt, it’s in the closet.”

“Uhh, thanks.”

He’s speechless. Again.

“It’s not for free, y’know?” Seongwoo smiles and Daniel could feel his mess of a brain instantly clearing up at the sight.

“How ‘bout you treat me to lunch later and we call it even?” He adds, still laughing gently ( ~~What an angel~~ ).

“Uhh--Of course, anything for my knight in shining armour?” Daniel laughs (awkwardly) but deep inside, he’s rambling because why did he even say something so unnecessary.

“Sure, meet me at the café downstairs at 1? Deal?”

“Deal.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is yuu speaking!  
> i want to say thank you for reading this fic  
> and yes, i'm planning to write this as a three-shot  
> so please do anticipate for the next chapters. 
> 
> comments would be greatly appreciated <3


End file.
